As Easy as Boiling Water
by Verbophobic
Summary: October is more than just a month. October is a way of life for one certain bot. October is warm and loving. October is everything he needs and wants. October is a teenage girl. This Story is about more than just friendships or romances made. Bonds are what hold us together so will it be a bond that tears them apart? My take on how bonds truly affect those that it touches. How the
1. October In May

Chapter One: October in May

"October?" A feminine voice, only slightly roughened by years of shouting and working with occasionally smoking cars, filled the small house. It belonged to a young woman that had just finished high school, her appearance almost as rough as her voice, though there was an elegance to her as well. Behind her stood her boyfriend, a somewhat short young man who claimed to be still waiting on his growth spurt. He did have five inches on her most of the time, though, due to her disinterest in high heels - save for special occasions. When there was no response to her call, she tapped her toes a few times before stepping forward. "Sam, I'm going to go get her."

"Mikaela, no." Sam wrapped his arms around her waist, refusing to let her go, not that she was fighting all that hard. "She's a big girl, let her dress herself." His voice was low and soft as he laid a kiss to the back of her head. She couldn't help the soft smile in response, and then she looked up again, brightening.

"Ha, ha, ha, Sam. You're so freaking funny." October herself leaned against the door frame, voice laced with sarcasm when she spoke. Her golden copper hair caught the light just right to make Mikaela think of the copper wiring she needed to finish for her stereo. Sam just noticed her russet colored eyes roll to emphasize the sarcastic remark. "I just need to put on some sunscreen and then we can go."

"Why do you need sunscreen?" Sam asked, releasing Mikaela so she could help October put the lotion on. "It's only like seventy out."

She couldn't move to really glare at him, not with Mikaela's hands on the back of her neck and shoulders, but she still turned her head enough for a sidelong look, which Sam only knew too well the meaning of. Most of the women in his life had given him that look many times. It basically translated to 'you're an idiot manchild but I'll explain anyway'. Or something like that anyway, since they did always explain. "Sam, do me a favor and look at your skin, then look at hers," she nodded towards Mikaela. "Now look at mine. Notice anything different? I'll burn to a crisp in ten minutes without this stuff." Indeed Sam looked. He had a nice tan, gained from long hours outside with Bee or Mikaela. Mikaela was a light brown color, hers more natural than his, though she'd certainly had help from the sun as well. October on the other hand really lived up to her namesake. Her hair was like the dying leaves along with her bark colored eyes. Skin as white as the chilly bite that the month gave off. With such pasty skin she would indeed 'burn to a crisp in ten minutes'.

The lotion was on and outside they went. Sam's bright yellow chevy sat right in front of her small house, or as Sam fondly called it shack. On the tailgate were two bikes. October never said anything as Sam told his car 'see ya later buddy' even though she had found it odd at first. Then she had figured every person had their quirks, that was just Sam's.

Opening her garage, empty of a car, she took her own bike out and hitched up the small trailer. She used to be a babysitter for several families so she had gotten a baby trailer attachment for going to and through the park. Now she just used it to put her bag and the picnic basket into it, this made biking to the park easier. The three friends put everything they had into her trailer and got ready to go. Sam was the only one that bothered with a helmet, until he pleaded enough with Mikaela to put hers on that she gave in just to shut him up.

October found it cute. Not the pathetic pleading or her giving in, but that he cared about her. All three of them had just graduated high school together and were taking a year break before college. Well Sam was, the girls were forgoing higher education. October because she was rich, her grandfather had been rich up until the day his heart gave out and willed everything to October including his large estate that her mother rented dirt cheap from her. She did odd jobs but was literally set for life, three times over. It was because of that vast amount of money that had fallen into her lap that she had only these two friends and envied their relationship. Love, or the teenage equivalent of it, was something that she wanted.

Being rich as a young teenager she quickly and easily saw how people wanted to use her for her money. So she became shy and stopped talking to people. Mikaela had been her gym partner from ninth grade until graduation but they had become friends before October even opened her mouth about anything money wise. With Mikaela came Sam, due to their relationship, so these were the only two friends she had. October wished for more than a friend. Or rather a friend that was not only just a friend.

Shy little October wanted love but for now she would be content to bike up this hill with her two friends, accepting the heavy sweating as a fair payment for not being alone. Cars and her, well they just didn't get along. Not since her father had died in one at least. She could easily ride as passenger with someone, but put her behind the wheel in the driver's seat and she began to panic. Besides, biking and being outside was better for her health.

Behind her, October could hear her friends talking. "Hey, Toby," October grasped the wrong bike handle brake and held it so tight that had it not been for her trailer, she would have went over the bars.

"Call me that one more time and I'll remove a piece of your anatomy." Before people wanted to use her for money they had made fun of her. Moby Toby they called her; as a pre-pubesent kid to teen she had been a bit heavier than the rest of her classmates. The reference to Moby Dick did surprise her slightly though. Who had known her classmates even knew who- or what- that was! But even so Toby was still a sore spot.

"Whatever," Sam grumbled catching up to her and stopping next to her. He stopped to not only take a breath but a drink from the water bottle connected to his bike. He offered it to her and Mikaela. Accepting it she took a gracious drink then passed it on. "We were wondering if you wanted to meet a few of our friends? They're not exactly like normal people so we were thinking maybe you guys would get along." The we there obviously being him and Mikaela.

"I- I don't know," October mumbled and looked down at her feet as she stood and held the bike up during their small break. She hadn't been good with meeting new people for a long time. If anything she'd make a fool of herself and her friends.

"Just come with us to meet them, please? Even if you don't talk just stop by with us to see them." Mikaela asked and pulled out her puppy eyes. October mutely nodded already knowing that the eyes would make her agree no matter what. Besides, she was a sucker for doing what her friends wanted. All either had to do was ask and she would say yes. If Sam had asked her to meet their friends she would have said yes, but he had asked if she wanted to. "Cool, how tired are you two? Cause the base is only an hour's bike ride from here."

Sam groaned and October took a small bottle of sunscreen off its key hook to slather more on. She hated getting burned, so if Mikaela was going to make them take an hour long bike ride she was taking no chances with turning her white skin lobster red. "Can't I just call Bee? Can't he drive us?"

"Man up Sam," Mikaela ordered then began to lead the way. Half an hour later Sam was falling way behind again and this lunch picnic is not what October had been expected.

When October was forced to stop again or leave Sam behind, she looked at Mikaela and asked "You want a cold water, Mikaela?" They were waiting for Sam to catch up so they might as well keep hydrated. Unzipping the sides of her enclosed baby trailer she took out her insulated lunch bag. In the bottom was two ice packs and five waters she had shoved in. Taking two she passed one to her friend and opened her own.

"Water~" Sam moaned as he caught up. Having drank half of hers already, October passed it to him. They were so going to get mono one of these days. Sam chugged the rest of her water and tossed the garbage back to October, who put it into the trailer. Mikaela finished what she wanted and passed it to Sam. He finished hers too and the same happened with that bottle. "Do we have to? I can still call Bee. He's got air conditioning, Mikaela~" he tried to reason then it turned into a whine when Mikaela ignored him and began to pedal forward once again.

October just gave her friend a shrug then continued to bike. Sam was so out of shape compared to the two girls! While he drove everywhere, Mikaela did walk and bike nearly weekly and caught rides with him, and October walked or biked daily. October also jogged a lot too, she used to be on the school's track team, that was the one thing about school that she missed. This bike ride was nothing compared to her normal schedule it was just that the sun was going higher up and, checking her phone that was mounted onto the handlebars, the temperature was rising with it. An hour ago it had only been seventy, now it was seventy-eight and still going up. She did worry slightly that she hadn't brought enough water.


	2. October, Not Toby

When they finally reached the military base, Sam entered the semi-cool hanger and collapsed to the floor. Mikaela and October walked around him, pushing their bikes in. October was in awe of the amount of security that went into the gates, three in total with barbed wire razor wire and concertina wire, yet the front gate was basically open. Well it opened and closed automatically with a different code put in for each of the three gates, but still. She glanced over at Mikaela as she settled her bike into place beside her friend's, wondering just what the other woman was getting her into.

Leaving the bikes just inside of the large hangar, Mikaela began to show October around. Being the shy girl that she was, October just stayed silent and took in everything her friend said. "You remember the attack on Mission City?" Mikaela asked her friend hesitantly as they headed towards a new room. October nodded, who could forget giant terrorist made robots nearly leveling a large city? "Well not everything they said on the news was true. There were two factions of robots, not just one. There are the Autobots and the Decepticons, kind of good versus bad, you know? The good guys won with only one severely injured man - bot, I mean - while the bad guys lost their leader and lost the battle.

"The Autobots are the good guys that won the fight. Me and Sam, well, we're their friends. If you want, we were thinking that you could be too." Mikaela chewed her lower lip as she waited to see how her friend would react. She was waiting for either the laughter or fear that this news might cause. What she got instead she hadn't expected at all.

"It's 'Sam and I', Mikaela, not 'me and Sam'. How many times do I have to go over this with you?" October said, voice soft but just a touch exasperated. Even Sam, who has _been_ friends with the Autobots, was showing more interest in this news than she was. He was close to freaking out while yelling at her that she was crazy for being able to so easily accept this. He was convinced that no one in the world could be so calm learning about aliens and sentient robots and - "If they're the good guys then what do I have to worry about?" she asked, bold now as she fixed her gaze on Sam. That boldness left the moment they entered the next section of the hanger where the large robotic humanoids were waiting.

It wasn't the fact that everyone was large robotic beings that had her falling completely silent and staring at her boot-clad feet. It was the fact that they were all strangers, and she didn't know what to say or how to act in front of new people. Mikaela greeted the tallest one that stood in the hanger. "Optimus!" she called out, gaining not only his attention, but everyone else's too.

"Mikaela, where is Sam?" the giant bot asked, his voice a low and deep rumble. His eyes looked over the shorter new girl as he spoke, interested as he ever was to meet new humans. While Mikaela was average height for humans, she was very tiny compared to the thirty-two foot tall robot. So October, who stood four inches shorter than Mikaela's five feet, was smaller than anyone the Autobots had seen except for children. "This must be your friend, October Williams, that you had wished to introduce us to."

Mikaela knew that waiting for her female friend to say anything would waste so much time, so she spoke up for her. "Yeah, this is October. October this is Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots. Sam is laying on the floor in the first hanger, I'll go get him." Mikaela left the hanger and October trailed behind her, just watching her feet as if it was the first time she had ever seen them. She didn't want to be left alone back there. She was so shy and worried about being made fun of, even from these new robotic beings.

Ratchet crossed the hangar to step closer to his leader and friend, keeping his voice low but not quite a whisper as he said, "She's not afraid of us." It was as though he knew what Optimus wanted to know, a trait that the Prime had long come to appreciate from his old friend. "Or rather, she's not afraid of us in the way that everyone is thinking." That was all the old medic offered before returning to his medical bay. While no one was hurt or in need of repairs it never hurt to be on the safe side, especially with Mudflap and Skids' recent arrival. The two of them alone could cause enough damage for the entire Autobot faction. In addition, they also had their second - older, though not by much - set of twins, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. The chances of someone being damaged in the next twenty-four hours rose to nearly eighty percent when those four shared a station.

Mikaela returned to the hangar with her friend and her boyfriend in tow, animatedly explaining something to the other female. Sam was leaning heavily on the short girl while complaining about being tired and not knowing how the girls could do it - riding their bikes that far and long in this weather. "Can one of you guys call 'Bee? He's probably still waiting in front of her house."

A large red bot nodded. His height was nothing compared to Optimus, but he still stood about twenty five or twenty six feet high, it was hard to tell from only five feet. His bulk made up for his lack of height, and if he were human October thought he might look like a bodybuilder, or one of those large guys that went to the gym daily and got their arms large enough to be the size of her waist. That was a small exaggeration, but who was there to judge her in her own mind?

When his large blue eyes turned to look at her, she flushed and looked back to the ground. There was no way he could have known what she was thinking, right? Mikaela hadn't said that they could read minds or anything, and how would that even work?

Her black boots stood out against the light gray of the floor, and she focused her eyes on that contrast, keeping herself from looking back up again. Her eyes traced over where her jeans were tucked into her knee high boots, and it made her feel different. She had never dressed like a normal person before, so whenever meeting someone knew she felt even more different, unacceptable most times. Sure these new people were large alien robots but that was not the point. People were expected to dress and act and speak a certain way, and she just never seemed to get the hang of it.

Sam was still leaning on her when he straightened. "The food!" he exclaimed, loud and high pitched. Startled, October jumped nearly a foot in the air. Literally, she had nearly jumped high enough to be of equal height to him. "Tobe's, go get the food!"

"My name is _October_ ," she muttered under her breath, but still she did as he told her and went to retrieve their food.

"I thought her designation was 'October', like your human month," Ironhide remarked, having caught her upset tone and softly mumbled words. "It seems that she would prefer it if you called her that." Ironhide didn't actually care, of course, but he figured he should make note of it himself as he turned away to fidget with his cannon more. They _were_ supposed to be on good terms with the humans after all. He turned the safety on manually so there would be no chance of him shooting the small human when she came back; he wanted to show her his guns the same way he did with Sam and Mikaela when they first met. It was a very powerful feeling to bring them online, to hear them whine and feel them thrumming through his systems as he aimed them at a 'target' and watching how his 'opponent' cowered with fear. It might seem cruel, but he would never fire on someone that didn't have it coming, so to him it was all in good fun.

October returned with two food baskets and a third filled with drinks. As she walked into the hangar, there was a whirring sound right above her and she was bathed in bright blue light. "Like my canons?" Ironhide asked, his voice geared toward a menacing growl. All of the bots and her two friends knew that he wouldn't do anything, he just liked showing off. Optimus stepped forward though, worried about the young girl's reaction to this. He had told Ironhide that some humans might not see the humor, or be impressed, but his weapons specialist still did it every time.

Looking up, October was nearly blinded by the light. Her eyes quickly took in the large weapon that was close to twice her height in diameter, then her head fell forward and she scuffed her shoes anxiously. "Yes?" she offered, as though asking him if that's what he wanted to hear. Above the whirring noise, no other bot but him heard her.

He lowered his weapon, power leaving the cannon with a low whine, and watched her curiously. His helm tilted as he looked at her, calculating, curious, and confused. Honestly, he had expected, and even wanted, a girlish scream like the one that Sam had given off a year ago. October wasn't moving however, and she continued to stand there with her head down. Her hair may have been in a ponytail, but her face framing bangs weren't and they hid her face, hid the brown eyes that were trained on him closely.

"Come on, Toby. I'm hungry." Sam called almost exasperated.

Once again October grumbled, " _October_ , what is so _hard_ about that?" Though she still followed Sam and Mikaela to go eat.


End file.
